Negative-index metamaterials (NIMs) are artificially structured materials exhibiting both negative electric permittivity and magnetic permeability over some frequency range. They propose great opportunities to control the light and to create such devices as invisibility cloaks, superresolution lenses, nanocouplers etc. Nowadays there is a lack of the isotropic negative-index material designs for infrared and optical wavelength.
We present the nested structures approach to design isotropic NIM in which the negative permeability part is
embedded into the negative permittivity part. We also present a design of NIM working at telecommunication
wavelengths and showing n = -1 and figure of merit higher than 2. The effective properties are obtained from
numerical simulations for 1-5 layers of metamaterial and show fine convergence with the number of layers. We
describe the physical behaviour of NIM and its constituent parts and prove its isotropy. The time-domain simulations
of the wave propagation through 20 NIM layers prove its negative refractive index behaviour.
The designed structure is a promising building block for construction of an isotropic negative-index material. The
proposed nested strucutres approach is useful for designing isotropic metamaterials.
Place: Copenhagen, Denmark